Toronto Centre Liberals get calls supporting Chrystia Freeland from number used for Trudeau leadership bid

Toronto Centre Liberals have been getting calls soliciting support for Chrystia Freeland from a telephone number that was used this winter to seek support for Justin Trudeau’s leadership bid, making Liberals in other camps wonder how far the leader is going to support his chosen candidate in a nomination battle.

Trudeau has promised that Liberal nominations will be open in all 338 ridings in the 2015 election, but he has convinced journalist Chrystia Freeland to move back to Toronto from New York to seek the nomination, and former Trudeau organizers are running her campaign, which makes some Liberals nervous about how open a nomination battle it really will be.

Former provincial cabinet minister George Smitherman backed out after Freeland entered the race, but community organizer Todd Ross and former banker Diana Burke are both seeking the right to carry the Liberal banner in a byelection.

Amanda Alvaro, co-chair of Freeland’s campaign, said Wednesday that the same number is showing up on phone calls to supporters because the Freeland campaign hired Prime Contact, the same voter-contact firm that did calls for Trudeau’s leadership campaign.

“I can tell you definitively on this one it was paid for by the campaign,” she said. “It had nothing to do with the leader’s office.”

Alvaro is one of a number of Trudeau backers who are trying to win the Liberal nomination for Freeland. Her campaign director, Alexis Levine, and Sachin Aggarwal, another co-chair, were both Trudeau backers.

Trudeau’s principal adviser, Gerald Butts, said Wednesday that there is no effort to rig the nomination for Freeland.

I know that it’s hard to believe given the past of the federal Liberal party, but we told her when she said she wanted to run, we told her that she would have to win her own nomination. We would introduce her to people, but in the end it was going to be up to her

“We certainly haven’t sent out some kind of executive order that thou shalt nominate this person,” he said. “I know that it’s hard to believe given the past of the federal Liberal party, but we told her when she said she wanted to run, we told her that she would have to win her own nomination. We would introduce her to people, but in the end it was going to be up to her.”

Freeland, an Albertan who gave up a job as managing director and editor with Thomson Reuters news in New York to seek the nomination, is the author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, and has lived out of the country for years. Her long absence from Canada has led commentators to make comparisons to former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who was attacked for returning to Canada only when he wanted to enter politics.

Ed Nixon, a spokesman for Liberal rival Ross, said Wednesday that Ross’s campaign is convinced it is an open nomination, and they are not rattled by links between Freeland’s campaign and the party leader.

“To be frank, I think this is a distraction,” he said. “I think the real issue is who’s best to represent Toronto Centre, and who has the best track record in the community. That’s why I’m supporting Todd.”

Burke campaign manager Quito Maggi said that he’s glad that Trudeau’s people are involved.

“We’re thrilled that Justin Trudeau and his volunteer team have taken such a keen interest in Toronto Centre. It shows his commitment to hope and hard work and we’re committed to the same priniciples.”

But a source close to Burke said that the campaign is concerned about the overlap between the Liberal party office, Trudeau’s campaign team and Freeland’s campaign team.

The date for the nomination meeting has not been sat, and neither has the date for the byelection. The riding became vacant when Liberal MP Bob Rae stepped down.

Rae won the riding in 2011 by 6,014 votes over New Democrat Susan Wallace.

Journalists Jennifer Hollett and Linda McQuaig are seeking the NDP nomination. McQuaig’s most recent book is The Trouble With Billionaires.

*An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Alexis Levine was an organizer on Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign. This version of the story has been updated and corrected.

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